Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Holiday Traditions

I am an adult.

I have a full time job, health insurance, and twice yearly appointments at the dentist. I pay my bills on time, go to bed at a reasonable hour, and force myself to eat green beans at potlucks because vegetables are important. After all that, you might be surprised how often I fail at one, basic adult thing: cooking dinner. Every now and then, some catastrophe will happen to one of the key ingredients, and it's so bad that there's no other choice but to throw in the towel and hit up Joe's Pizza.

Just last week, Matt and I opened up a box of basil pesto tilapia from Costco. We were congratulating ourselves on such a healthy, cheap dinner on a Friday night, when we noticed that the bag inside our newly-opened box was already ripped open. Not wanting to end up as a Dateline News story, we called in our usual cheese pizza order. Dinner fail.

Dinner fails seem to have become holiday traditions. Like the time someone in our household forgot to turn on the oven on Thanksgiving. (I say "someone" because the culprit has yet to be identified--there was a lot of finger pointing going on that day in the Eide household.) Or, the time I promised my mother-in-law I would bring in a fresh loaf of bread from my new bread machine, only to realize I had omitted one crucial component--the kneading blade that goes in the bottom of the pan. And let's not forget the year that fur-cousin Emma went to town on the turkey that was left behind in the kitchen.

Emma, you saucy minx!

Thankfully, these dinner fails always had a happy ending--it's hard to stay mad when you've got family and delicious carbs by your side.

All that rambling has led me to this: some things are just inevitable during the holidays, whether you intend for them to happen or not. So, friends, I'm asking you to follow along with me on social media (insta, Facebook, Twitter), and share your #ThoroughlyModernTraditions.

I am nuts about traditions--I love following old ones and creating new ones. Sometimes, I cry when traditions get broken, like the first Christmas we were married and we couldn't make it to Christmas Eve mass because of a freak snowstorm. Sometimes, I try to create new traditions and they don't go as planned--like the time Matt and I were going to share a bottle of nice champagne on Christmas Even while opening gifts, and we went to bed after only half a glass.

Despite all the failures, and the heartache that comes with growing older, I still love a good tradition, and I can't wait to see what you all share! Once the holidays are over, I'll be giving away one of my favorite Kate Spade mugs and a Starbucks gift card to a randomly selected participant (because we'll all need caffeine to navigate those post-holiday blues). If you want more holiday hashtag fun, use #MyHolidaySpark with Helene and Taylor--because the more hashtags, the merrier, duh!